Research

As a comedy historian and analyst, my research follows two interconnected strands. Through an archival approach, I study physical forms of comedy, including commedia dell’arte, clowning, pantomime, and vaudeville. I am also interested in the theme of migration and comedy: how does comedy travel, and what is involved when translating one’s national identity in a comic setting? These themes appear across my academic work, including books, articles, and edited collections.

Books and Edited Volumes

Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, 1716-1723

My first book, Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, 1716-1723, was published by Palgrave MacMillian in 2021 in the award-winning series Transnational Theatre Histories.

Framing Italian commedia dell’arte as a transnational brand, I focus on the performances of one troupe led by actor, playwright, and theorist Luigi Riccoboni, who was invited by the French crown in the eighteenth century to install a permanent Italian style theatre in Paris. Depicting this troupe as immigrant comedians, I explore the ways the actors translated their talents, culture, and Italian identity in France.

Clowns and Clowning: A Documentary History

My second book is a documentary history of clown acts dating back to the eighteenth century called Clowns and Clowning, volume 5 of Circus and Sideshow in the Long Nineteenth Century: A Documentary History (Routledge 2026).

My colleague Dr. Laurence Senelick and I sought to collate the archival record of as many clown acts as we could find, tracing the genealogy of clowning up to 150 years prior to the advent of film. Our text quotes them at length to give clown researchers access to rare and previously untranslated primary sources from places such as England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United States, Mexico, and Argentina.

Special Issue: "Comedy and Embodiment" in Theatre Topics

I co-edited a special issue of Theatre Topics on the theme of “Comedy Embodiment” printed in the summer of 2024. The volume was a labor of love, and the source of many years of collaboration with other comedy scholars: Dr. Katelyn Hale Wood, Dr. Maria De Simone, and Dr. Grace Overbeke.

When it comes to the study of comedy, we felt the media studies and communications folks were having all the fun, so we created this issue to spotlight a TaPS approach, inviting scholars to discuss the various ways comedy is embodied by the performers. The issue includes ten articles that engage with multiple forms of comedy, including stand-up, improv, stage plays, drag, and performance art. They discuss themes of race, sexuality, gender, and transnationalism.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Playing Nice in the Face of Bigotry: Bassem Youssef and Islamophobia in the United States” tells the story behind the famous Egyptian satirist who adapted Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show in a totalitarian country. Having been forced out of Egypt as an enemy of the state, Youssef now lives and works in the US. I write about that transition and how he has attempted to make a name for himself in a country that views Muslims and Arabs with suspicion. The article was published by Comedy Studies in 2024.

“Wrestling with Consent: Natalie Palamides and Audience Participation in the Clown Show Nate” interrogates Palamides’s use of audience interaction in an otherwise chaotic, boundary-pushing, experimental clown show, Nate: A One Man Show (2020). Therein, Palamides invites male audience members on stage to wrestle her drag persona Nate. I discuss the clever way she structures her show to encourage jaw-dropping risks from the audience. The article appraises Palamides's methods to help practicing comedians devise their own experiments with audience participation in a thoughtful manner. The article was published in Comedy Studies in 2025.

Dr. Kyna Hamill and I co-authored an article called “Teaching the Commedia Dell’Arte Tradition in One Day: Problems and Possibilities.” We believe that what is being taught in most theatre history classrooms in North America is an ahistorical commedia dell’arte. We also recognize that lecturers have little time in the course calendar to commit to the subject and so rely on broad simplifications for the sake of expediency. The goal of the article is to proffer practical suggestions to frame a lesson on commedia dell’arte in one day that still honors its complicated, idiosyncratic history. The article was published in Theatre Topics in 2025.

“To Catch a Joke Thief, or Copyrighting Vaudeville Acts in the New York Clipper Registry,” was published by Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film in 2021. For the first time, this article prints files from The New York Clipper Registry, housed in the American Comedy Archives at Emerson College, which includes hundreds of one-of-a-kind documents submitted by vaudevillians attempting to copyright their work. The paper considers the slippery nature of copyright and joke stealing as it relates to the ephemerality of vaudeville acts, particularly those that do not rely on text (such as a physical comedy routine).

Other articles include a study of Jazz sensation Ada "Bricktop" Smith, who moved to France and started a club of her own called Chez Bricktop. There she became a legend who hosted the who's who of European royalty and culture. I've also written on another transnational figure performing in France, the Afro-Cuban clown Chocolat, who had Parisians rolling with laughter at the Nouveau Cirque. Both performers navigated the challenging waters of racial representation while also branding themselves as trailblazers in a foreign environment.

In the Works...

Pantomime Clowning: A Documentary History

A continuation of Clowns and Clowning, this book provides a documentary history of clowning in pantomime. Dr. Senelick and I provide many uncoverred and untranslated sources regarding the influence of commedia dell'arte on pantomime, strains of pantomime in England, France, and the United States, and the connective tissue between pantomime and eccentric performers in vaudeville and music hall at the turn of the twentieth century. The book has an advanced contract with Routledge.

Funny Moves: Migration and Comedy in the United States

I am currently writing Funny Movies: Migration and Comedy in the United States, which continues to explore topics found in Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, but in a contemporary context. In September of 2024, I signed an advance contract with University of Iowa Press and its Theatre History and Culture series.

Funny Moves explores the work of a number of (im)migrant comedians, such as Sofía Vergara (Colombia), Trevor Noah (South Africa), Atsuko Okatsuka (Taiwan/Japan), Julio Torres (El Salvador), Zarna Garg (India), to name just a few, who have emigrated to the United States and made audiences laugh (and think) by using their transnational identities as the subject of their work.

What have these comedians learned from moving from one country to another? What difficulties did they face? How did they connect their stories, jokes, and cultural background to a foreign audience? Funny Moves attends to the ways many comedians perform as migrants and through migration. In other words, I explore how comedians negotiate the profound challenges, risks, and implications of border crossing.

If you would like copies of any of the articles above, let me know and I'd be happy to share!

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